Will Twitter TV be a hit?

“Twitter TV is a bad idea,” said Brennon Slattery in PC World. Not only has the plan for a TV show based on Twitter caused “the world’s top Twitterer”—actor Ashton Kutcher—to “threaten a hiatus from the micro-blogging service.” But the idea, which is to have ordinary people tracking celebrities and tweeting about it, “really does sound like a crap show.”

True, said MG Siegler in TechCrunch, “the Twitter show could absolutely suck.” Still, breaking into entertainment could help move Twitter into a world where using its Web service no longer seems like “something that geeks do.” If Twitter TV helps the company engage the mainstream, it can become a service far more people might use, without really thinking about whether they’re online or offline.

“A Twitter TV show doesn't sound like a terrible idea to me,” said Margaret Lyons in Entertainment Weekly, but a reality show in which ordinary people compete by stalking celebrities doesn’t seem like the way to do it. “Twitter honcho” Biz Stone was quick to point out the project is the work of Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment—not an official Twitter show—so there’s probably no reason to get too “fired up” about Twitter TV.

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